Homemade Mozzarella

Matt and I joined forces to take a dabble in cheesemaking! First was goat cheese, which we will write about soon, and second was mozzarella, which we’ve made twice already! It’s so easy and tastes great. I’ve asked Matt (the food scientist) to write up the post amidst my photos. Take it a whey, Matt!

Just about every homebrew shop carries the ingredients and equipment to make cheese – besides the fact that it’s easy to get into once you’re a brewer, there’s certainly something in the two hobbies that excites the same type of people. Cheese making, just like baking and brewing, is a fine balance between art and science. In all three you can meticulously plan out your ingredients to the gram, diligently sanitize your equipment, carefully monitor temperature, but there’s something wild and unknown about adding yeast and other fermentative microorganisms to food. I like to think that if you give your yeast the respect it deserves, it will reward you with a high quality product.

The ingredients are simple: a gallon of whole milk, citric acid, and rennet. The last two can easily be purchased online or probably at your local homebrew shop. The process is also pretty simple: we use the citric acid to curdle the milk and the rennet to coagulate it. Then we use heat to tighten the proteins, which wrings out a lot of the moisture. When it gets hot enough, it becomes very stretchy and pliable, and then it gets kneaded into the classic shiny mozzarella nuggets.

Start by dissolving 1.5 teaspoons of the citric acid in .25 cup of water. Stir to dissolve and give it a few minutes if needed.

In the meantime you can pour your milk into a non-reactive pot (anything but aluminum the websites say). We used Whole Foods’ 365 brand, organic in this post but we found the Trickling Springs Creamery milk we usually buy for drinking made a better product in our second batch. Just make sure the milk is NOT “ultra-pasteurized.” – the proteins are broken down too much to make good cheese. “Pasteurized” is okay.

Bring the milk up to about 90 degrees. Ours went a little over! But so long as it’s not above 105* you’re okay. Stir occasionally to evenly distribute the heat.

While the milk is heating, dissolve .25 teaspoon of rennet into 1 cup of water. What’s rennet you ask? Let me google that for you!

Once you hit the target temp, turn off the heat, pour in the rennet solution, and stir for no more than 30 seconds to evenly distribute. Then stir in the opposite direction so that the milk is still. It’s important that the milk isn’t moving around too much so that it can coagulate properly. Cover the pot and let sit for 5 minutes.

When you come back you’ll be surprised to find that the milk will look like thick custard floating in water! Give it a small push with your finger to double check that it has lightly coagulated. It definitely won’t have much spring back, but it should feel like a thick film. If it doesn’t feel like this or you’re not sure, it’s fine to give it an extra 5-15 minutes just to make sure.

Now it’s time to cut the curds! Use a knife or thin spatula that will reach the bottom of the liquid and cut into a 1 inch grid. This is to make it easier for the whey (the liquid) to drain off.

Once the curd is cut, turn the heat on low to medium and gently stir as you bring it to 105*. The curd cubes will break apart some and that’s okay.

Now scoop out the curds with a slotted device (a spider works best but I can’t find ours!). The first time we did this we scooped into a colander but I don’t think this is necessary now.

You’ll be amazed at how solid it already is!

Save the big pot of whey for now – you might use it later.

At this point the goal is to squeeze out a bunch of the whey and also heat the curd to a point that we can stretch and shape it. Put it in a microwave-safe bowl and cook on high for 1 minute.

Take it out and give it a thorough squeeze. My preferred method of squeezing the whey out is not to remove the curd from the bowl but to press it against the side of the bowl. Tilt to the side to allow the whey to run out. Lightly fold the curd into itself. It’s not so much like kneading bread dough where you roughly and thoroughly tighten it – it’s more like lightly folding and squeezing/pressing. It will begin to tighten some and start to look a little shaggy.

Continue with the microwaving (for 30 seconds at a time now) and then squeezing/folding process.

After three rounds, begin to try and pick it up and stretch it. If it tears easily, you need to keep microwaving and removing whey. Here’s a log of it that’s tearing:

Eventually you’ll see that you can stretch it some without it tearing. This is the point to add about 1 teaspoon of granulated salt. Continue stretching and wrapping into itself until you have a smooth ball. If it cools down too much in your hands and begins to tear, heat it in the microwave a bit. Eventually you’ll get a sturdy, firm, smooth, and shiny ball on your hands:

This recipe will yield about a pound of final product. I find that half of this is good for one pizza, so consider splitting the batch in half at some point in the shaping process and making little tiny balls. Then add enough salt to some of the retained whey to make a briny solution and store in brine for about a week. Amazing on salads!

At this point we’ve made mozzarella a couple times and like a lot of things in life, each time you do it you get a little better at it. The good news is that even if you produce a shaggy, ugly lump of curd, you’ve still made cheese! And it will taste great too! I highly recommend reading the FAQ on the cheesemaking.com website, and watching these videos to familiarize yourself. Happy cheesing!

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Comments

This look delicious! Nothing beats fresh mozzarella. My boyfriend and I like to slice it up with super thin tomatoes and a drizzle of balsamic and sprinkles of basil. So tasty and fresh. I think I’d be a little intimidated to make my own though!

I made mozzarella while in culinary school and found the whole process really fascinating! Although, I think your process sounds more simple and straight-forward than what we might have done (that’s a good thing). We actually took the curds and poured a little bit of boiling, very hot water over them and that’s how we started the stretching–very interested in your microwaving method though!

Thanks gor sharing your methodmfornthe mozzarella Kath!!
Cant wait to see the goat cheese post, that is the one cheese I want to try making the most!
I have made cheeses already and it is just as you said, the more you make, the better they turn out! And one of the best advices with cheese making is to not skimp on good quality milk, as the milk is definitely the most important thing!
Ana

loved this post, even though the thought of making cheese has always been daunting for me!
heads up to vegetarian friends: they sell vegetarian rennet at many health food stores (derived from plants or fungus) in case you don’t want to use animal rennet.

I like how you described the process as a balance of art and science. As a scientist with a creative personality, I think those two go hand in hand, even though most people wouldn’t think so at first. Looks like there will be a lot of pizza & beer nights in your future… YUM!

I have been wanting to make mozzarella for a while! I bought the kit and haven’t tried it yet. My only holdup is that I don’t have a microwave, so I’m not sure how I could stretch the curd/remove the whey properly. Any ideas?

I haven’t done this myself but the traditional method involves pouring 2-3 cups of boiling water over the curds to heat them, then pressing and stretching and repeating. Watch the videos at the end of the post and you’ll see. It will look intimidating but remember: at every stage of this process you have something that is edible. Even if you mess up you still have food!

Great post! I’ve been reading for years (never commenting though). I found the blog via the original oatmeal recipe which I loved because it was a useful and straightforward post. I’ve been whipping bananas into my oats ever since! I still read the blog because I like to hear how you and Matt are doing. In recent times, I’ve found the blog not as useful (although if I were a mother I would probably appreciate your feedback on products via babykerf). I’ve also read some of the negative stuff online and admire your efforts to adapt your blog in the face of mean criticism and your own changing life. I would love to see more posts like this cheese post because I found it inspiring, informative, and it would be a very good guide for me to make cheese myself. It also provided links to other good resources. It reminds me of the exact reason I started to read your blog (or more importantly, bookmarked it!!) Keep going!!

Whoa… you guys are amazing! I was just proud of myself for choosing a Newman’s own frozen pizza vs. digiorno thick crust. I think I need to step up my game 😉 Maybe I’ll start with this method of cheese making… or maybe I’ll just buy some fresh mozzarella vs the cheese stick kind. (baby steps)

Ive read here for a while but never commented, and I have to say I LOVED this! As a fellow bread baker (by profession and hobby) and complete beginner in beer brewing, I would love to see more posts like this.
My favorite thing about this site is how Kath writes everything so straightforward and simple. Matt, you explained this the same way. Thanks for posting this!

No offense intended, I apologize! I’ve only used one kind of rennet so far and I’m pretty sure it’s animal sourced. It came with the goat cheese kit we bought. As far as I know they should work the same – after all, rennet is just a solution of enzymes. But there might be some difference, I don’t know.

The crazy thing is you need so little rennet to make cheese that I’m reluctant to buy anymore until I use up what I have. Some recipes for cheese call for 1/5 of a drop of rennet… that’s right, one fifth! So maybe a year down the road I’ll buy some veggie rennet!

There are several kinds of vegetable rennet. The best is Chymosin rennet available from online cheese stores. The other is junket rennet which is notoriously weak. I use Chymosin. It works very well, although I have never used animal rennet to compare it to.

Brilliant!! I’ve been meaning to try making my own but I’m too busy trying out a million other recipes! Maybe it’s also because I know that my husband (born and raised in Italy!) would most likely not approve..and all my effort would be in vain!! Lol!

Homemade moz sounds good. This is my fav recipe for homemade ricotta. No special ingredients unless you count cheesecloth special : Only three ingredients. This is so delish just on a spoon while warm (I like a little salt and pepper on it). Especially good using with a simple veggie recipe (like zuchinni boats). It’s from Cooking Light and I’ve been making it for years. http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/homemade-ricotta-cheese-10000001041858/
I’ve been wanting to try homemade moz but have yet to order the stuff online. No specialty stores locally. Enjoy your weekend!

Great post with wonderful details to go along with the photos. Thank you, Matt! I wanted to see if you might know if it would work to use goat’s milk instead of the cow’s milk. My boys have been raised on goat’s milk but I have never tried making mozzarella with it…only feta.

Strangely enough, during my first attempt at making cheese, mozzarella was the only one that did not turn out! The feta and cream cheese were wonderful. However, we didn’t use the microwave method like you did…I’m definitely going to try that next time.

I am so excited your first mozzarella turned out so well. I have been enjoying making cheese for about a year now. Ricki Carroll’s book has been an amazing resource. I am currently working on blogging my way through all her cheese recipes at http://maeveswiftly.wordpress.com/. Best of luck!

WOW. My world has just been rocked. Once again you’ve given me something to work towards!

PS I’ve been meaning to send you an email…Could Matt recommend any books on baking bread with whole grains? I love baking bread but I’m at the point where I want to learn and try new recipes! Being that Matt is somewhat BRILLIANT in that department I figured he’s the guy to go to for recommendations!

Peter Reinhart’s Whole Grain Breads is an awesome reference for baking with whole grains. The hardest part about baking whole grain stuff is that it so often turns out like a dense brick (oh man I remember my first “loaf”). Reinhart has a great solution that involves hydrating practically all the flour… and some other great tips. It’s written for the home baker – check it out!

Cool! I’ve been wanting to do this, and your post has inspired me to do so! I also want to make cream cheese since it’s near impossible to find any without stabilizers. And yogurt. Any experience making either of those?